1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a sheet processing apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus capable of cutting a sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
With a conventional image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, and a multifunction peripheral including functions of such apparatuses, a booklet-like sheet stack can be obtained in the following manner. After sheets output from an image forming apparatus body are stacked, the sheet stack is bound with a stapler at one or two positions. Then, the bound sheet stack is folded at the stapled positions to produce a booklet.
In recent years, post-processing of a print product is performed in various different ways as in the case of, for example, producing a booklet to be inserted into an envelope. For example, in outputting a small size bound sheet stack, it may be desirable to cut a large regular-size sheet into a number of small size sheets. In this regard, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3012298 discusses a paper cutting apparatus configured to cut a large size sheet into small size sheets.
In cutting a large regular-size sheet into small size sheets, waste cut-off sheets may be generated due to the difference between the size of the large regular-size sheet and the size of the small size sheet. In this regard, however, a conventional paper cutting apparatus merely cuts a sheet into a desired size sheet and does not support bookbinding processing after cutting a sheet stack. Accordingly, the conventional paper cutting apparatus cannot calculate a sheet size according to which an amount of waste cut-off sheets generated during a cutting operation is minimized or decreased. Thus, to minimize or decrease an amount of waste cut-off sheets, a relatively complex computation is required to be manually performed by a user to select or determine an optimal sheet size to be cut with the conventional paper cutting apparatus.
Furthermore, in producing a small size bound sheet stack with a conventional paper cutting apparatus, the number of times of folding a large size sheet is limited to one. Thus, only a small number of pages can be obtained from one large size sheet. Accordingly, when a desired sheet size is smaller than the size of a sheet obtained by folding a large size sheet once, an excessive amount of waste cut-off sheets can be generated.